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AS AUSTRALIA remembers its servicemen and women, soldiers in North Korea are putting down their weapons and picking up shovels. Beyond the barbed wire of the DMZ, ruddy-faced North Korean soldiers put down their rifles and stood shoulder to shoulder with farmers as they turned their focus to another battle: the spring planting. As neighbouring nations remain on guard for a missile launch or nuclear test that South Korean and US officials say could take place at any time, the focus north of the border is on planting rice, cabbage and soybeans. In hamlets all along the DMZ, soldiers were knee-deep in mud and water as they helped farmers with the spring planting.

NightWatch For the night of 24 April 2013 North Korea: Update. A press report from a reporter in North Korea who went to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) confirmed that North Korean front line soldiers are engaged in spring planting. Farmers in Panmunjom-ri, the North Korean village inside the DMZ, were busy planting rice, cabbage, soybeans and radish in fields surrounded by barbed wire and anti-tank barriers. The reporter saw soldiers helping the farmers, but military escorts assured him they were ready for war on short notice. Comment: This is an annual practice because all the units in the armed services must provide a significant part of their own rations. The significance is that the activity is normal, though it has begun late because planting weather arrived late. Both North and South Korean farmers cultivate fields inside the DMZ, which is two kilometers wide on each side of the Military Demarcation Line. The farmers on both sides are trusted veterans who will not defect. The barbed wire and tank barriers are always present.

The Rear. Anecdotal reporting from provinces along the China border also report normal conditions, except for mandatory Saturday lectures on the threat of war and North Korea's superiority over South Korea. The reports are so trite and false, according to the sources, that even the Party officials who are supposed to give the lectures are embarrassed. The workers complain that the official descriptions of how well off North Koreans are compared to South Koreans do not explain the continued shortages and hard living conditions in the North. Some party cadres reportedly have refused to give the prescribed lectures. The sources reported no one expects a war.

Gottal love it when the party cadres are too embarrassed to repeat the party line.